Save Our Planet

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Save Our Planet
2
urgency
WE ARE AT CRISIS POINT

• If there is no action before 2012, it is too
  late. What we do now in the next 2-3 years will
  determine our future. This is the defining
  moment.
• - Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of IPCC
• We are so close to the red line, we may wake up
  tomorrow and discover there is nothing left to
  save.
• - Maneka Gandhi, former Indian Environment
  Minister
• We have a full-scale planetary emergency.
• - Al Gore, former US Vice President

• Source
• Dr. Pachauri, Rajendra. U.N. Chief Seeks More
  Climate Change Leadership. www.nytimes.com.
• Elisaberth Rosenthal. Retrieved on 17-01-2009.
  http//tinyurl.com/39jv43
• Ghandi, Maneka. The world may have nothing left
  to save tomorrow. www.indiaenews.com.
• Retrieved on 17-01-2009. http//tinyurl.com/6zkw
  wl
• Gore, Al. Planetary Emergency.
  www.fogcityjournal.com. Luke Thomas. Retrieved on
  17-01-2009
• http//tinyurl.com/5drkt3

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• The Union of Concerned Scientists, some 1,700 of
  the worlds leading scientists, including the
  majority of Nobel laureates in the sciences
  issued this warning as far back as 1992
•  WARNING
• We the undersigned, senior members of the world's
  scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of
  what lies ahead. A great change in our
  stewardship of the earth and the life on it is
  required, if vast human misery is to be avoided
  and our global home on this planet is not to be
  irretrievably mutilated.
• The scientists issuing this warning hope that our
  message will reach and affect people everywhere.
  We need the help of many.
• We call on all to join us in this task.

• Source
• 1992 World Scientists' Warning to Humanity.
  www.ucsusa.org .Union of Concerned Scientists.
• Retrieved on 17-01-2009 http//tinyurl.com/5q
  ndft

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the facts

• One of the biggest contributors
• Livestock Production

Livestock industry accounts for 80 of all GHG
emissions from agriculture. Livestock accounts
for 18 of global greenhouse gas emissions from
all sources more than the entire transport
sector globally.

• Source
• H.Steinfeld et al. (2006). Livestocks Long
  Shadow (PDF). Ch. 3, P. 112 and Ch.7, P.272.
• Retrieved on 17-01-2009. http//tinyurl.com/96csx
  h

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• Livestocks contribution to environmental
  problems is on a massive scale and its potential
  contribution to their solution is equally large.
  The impact is so significant that it needs to be
  addressed with urgency.
• - U.N. Food Agriculture Organization

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livestock industry
Emissions The single largest producer of methane
nitrous oxide

• 37 of global methane emission - 23x more
  potent than CO2 over 100 years - 68x more potent
  than CO2 over 20 years - causes headaches, brain
  defects, suffocation
• 65 of global nitrous oxide emission - 297x
  more potent than CO2 - causes short-term
  decreases in mental performance, audiovisual
  ability manual dexterity, and adverse
  reproductive effects
• 64 of the worlds ammonia - contributing to
  acid rain - affecting biodiversity
• 9 of total CO2 emissions

Source -H.Steinfeld et al. (2006).
Livestocks Long Shadow (PDF). Ch. 3, P. 82,
112, 114. Retrieved on 17-01-2009.
http//tinyurl.com/96csxh
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Environmental Costs

• Livestock sector is by far the single largest
  anthropogenic user of land.
• Livestock production accounts for 70 of all
  agricultural land and 30 of the worlds surface
  land area.
• Livestock sector is a major cause of wide scale
  land degradation with 70 of all grazing land in
  dry areas considered to be degraded because of
  overgrazing, compaction and erosion caused by
  rearing of animals for their meat.

livestock industry

• Source H.Steinfeld et al. (2006).
  Livestocks Long Shadow (PDF). Retrieved on
  17-01-2009. http//tinyurl.com/96csxh

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livestock industry
Environmental Costs
Water Pollution

• Livestock industry is the largest sectoral source
  of water pollutants.
• Animal wastes contribute to large oceanic dead
  zones, extended to nearly 7,903 square miles in
  the Gulf of Mexico during Summer 2007.
• Once pollutants, including nitrogen, phosphorus,
  antibiotics and pesticides, reach the waterways
  they cause a great deal of damage to aquatic and
  human life.

• Source
• H.Steinfeld et al. (2006). Livestocks Long
  Shadow (PDF).Ch.Executive Summary.
• Retrieved on 17-01-2009. http//tinyurl.com/96c
  sxh
• NOAA and Louisiana Scientists Predict Largest
  Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone on Record This
  Summer.
• www.noaanews.noaa.gov. Ben Sherman. Retrieved
  on 17-01-2009. http//tinyurl.com/5atfov

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A Major Cause of Deforestation

• 70 of the Amazon deforestation is due to
  clearing land for pasture and livestock feed
  crops.
• The trees of the Amazon release 20 billion tonnes
  of water to the atmosphere each day the energy
  equivalent of the largest hydro dam in the world
  (in Brazil) operating at maximum power for 145
  years.
• By year 2010 cattle are projected to be grazing
  on some 24 million hectares of neotropical land
  that was forest in 2000.

livestock industry

• Source
• H.Steinfeld et al. (2006). Livestocks Long
  Shadow (PDF). Retrieved on 17-01-2009.
  http//tinyurl.com/96csxh
• Climate Regulation. www.globalcanopy.org.
  Retrieved on 17-01-2009 http//tinyurl.com/55verl
• H.Steinfeld et al. (2006). Livestocks Long
  Shadow (PDF).Ch. 5.3.1 P 188.
• Retrieved on 17-01-2009. http//tinyurl.com/96c
  sxh

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Effects of Deforestation

• Deforestation causes 18-25 of global carbon
  emissions.
• Deforestation affects rainfall and freshwater,
  soil productivity, clean air, forestry, and
  biodiversity resources.
• Habitat destruction through deforestation is a
  major cause of loss and biodiversity.
• Heavily deforested areas can see a 300 fold
  increase in the risk of malaria infection
  compared to areas of intact forest.
• Tropical forests are critical to the survival of
  over a billion of the worlds poorest and most
  vulnerable people.
• Deforestation and overgrazing are two causes of
  desertification. By 2020 about 135 Million
  people risk being driven from their lands because
  of continuing desertification.
• Desertification reduces food security and can
  lead to social unrest and conflict.

• Source
• Global Canopy Programme Forests Now Declaration
  
• http//tinyurl.com/6fgnym, http//tinyurl.com/6hbq
  bx, http//tinyurl.com/6n73dj
• State of the World's Forests 2007, UN Food and
  Agriculture Organization, Rome, 2007, Part 2,
  Selected Issues in the Forest sector
• UNDP Human Development Report 2007/2008
  Fighting Climate Change Human Solidarity In A
  Divided World
• IUCN http//tinyurl.com/6vefb3

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Environmental Costs
Loss of Biodiversity
We are in an era of unprecedented threats to
biodiversity. Fifteen out of 24 important
ecosystem services are assessed to be in
decline. The sheer quantity of animals being
raised for human consumption is a threat to the
Earths biodiversity. Livestocks Long
Shadow, UN Food and Agriculture Organization,
2007
livestock industry

• Livestock take up 30 of the earths land surface
  which was once habitat for wildlife.
• Tropical forests hold half of the worlds species
  which are becoming extinct at an alarming rate
  due to deforestation for meat production.

• Source
• Livestocks Long Shadow, UN Food and Agriculture
  Organization, 2007 http//tinyurl.com/6bowo7
  (p32 / p185-p188)

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Water Scarcity - The Facts
Environmental Costs

• Over 1 billion people worldwide do not have
  access to clean water
• More than 2 billion people do not have proper
  sanitation
• By 2025 there will be 1.8 billion people living
  with absolute water scarcity and 2/3 of the
  worlds population could be living under water
  stressed conditions
• On a global basis, the amount of fresh water
  available per person is falling rapidly.

livestock industry
Source -Livestocks Long Shadow, UN Food and
Agriculture Organization, 2007 -United Nations
Environment Programme (2002) Global
Environmental Outlook
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livestock industry
Environmental Costs
Water Scarcity - Usage
Meat production, particularly the production of
feed, consumes large amounts of critically
important water resources. - U.N.
Food Agriculture Organization

• Homes use 10 of all water
• Industry uses 20 of all water
• Agriculture uses 70 of all water

Source - Livestocks Long Shadow, UN Food and
Agriculture Organization, 2007 http//tinyurl.com/
6bowo7 -Saving Water from Field to Fork, SIWI,
IWMI, Chalmers SEI, May 2008 http//tinyurl.com/
58padp
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Water scarcity
Does our choice of food matter?

• Livestock sector is among the most damaging
  sectors to the Earths scarce water resources.
• Producing 1 kilo of beef requires 13,000-100,000
  litres of water.
• Producing 1 kilo of wheat requires 1000-2000
  litres of water.
• Water-intensive food items like meat and dairy
  products is placing increased stress on food
  production systems.
• A diet containing less meat and dairy products is
  not only healthier than our current eating
  habits, but is better for the environment.

Source -Livestocks Long Shadow, UN Food and
Agriculture Organization, 2007 -Food and
Agriculture Organisation. 22nd March 2007. FAO
urges action to cope with increasing water
scarcity. Rome http//tinyurl.com/4nhboq
Pimental D. Et al, 1997. Water Resources
Agriculture, the Environment, and Society.
Bioscience. 47 (2), 97-106 -Stockholm
International Water Institute and the
International Water Management Institute, 2004
Water More nutrition per drop -Food Matters,
Cabinet Office, July 2008, p.15
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Water scarcity
Does our choice of food matter?

• Producing 1 kg of beef leads to the emission of
  greenhouse gases with a global warming potential
  of 36.4 kg of CO2.
• 1 kg of beef produces the same amount of CO2
  emitted by the average European car every 250 km,
  and burns enough energy to light an 100 watt bulb
  for 20 days.
• Over 2/3 of the energy for producing meat goes
  towards producing and transporting the animals
  feed.

Source -Animal Science Journal, Evaluating
environmental impacts of the Japanese beef
cow-calf system by the life cycle assessment
method, 2007.
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World Soya Supply
Our Choice For Human or For Animal?

• Global Soya Crop Production 220 million tons
  (2007/08)
• 74 fed to animals
• 17 for soy oil, incl. biofuel
• 9 for human other

Source -Oil Crops Year in Review U.S. Soybean
Demand Powered by Record 2006/07 Supply, -US
Department of Agriculture, http//tinyurl.com/4h9w
wj
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World Soya Supply
Our Choice Food or Feed

• Global Grain Crop Production 2109 million tons
  (2007/08)
• 36 to feed animals
• 47 to feed people
• 5 for grain-derived biofuels
• 12 for other

Source -Crop Prospects and Food Situation, UN
Food and Agriculture Organization,
http//tinyurl.com/446b9f
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World Hunger

• Every 2.3 seconds, a child dies from malnutrition
• Malnutrition costs US 20-30 billion per year
  globally
• More than 800 million people in the world go
  hungry every day
• 760 million tons of grain are fed to animals
  every year
• Hunger and poverty claim 25,000 lives every day

the facts

• Source
• UNICEF, The State of the Worlds Children, 2006
  http//tinyurl.com/3y2gql
• Livestocks Long Shadow, UN Food and Agriculture
  Organization, 2007
• UN FAO The State of Food Insecurity in the
  World, 2006

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Overcoming World Hunger

• Grain fed to animals reared for human consumption
  loses 90 of the energy from the original grain
• 1 hectare of land produces
• beef to support 1 person
• lamb to support 2 people
• rice to support 19 people
• potatoes to support 22 people
• With 854 million people hungry in the world (more
  than the populations of USA, Canada, and the
  European Union), the grain fed to cattle (nearly
  half the worlds supply) could be used to feed
  the starving

• Source
• Dr David Archer, Professor of Geophysical
  Sciences at University of Chicago
• Lester R. Brown, Outgrowing the Earth, Ch. 3,
  W.W. Norton Co., 2005
• UN FAO The State of Food Insecurity in the
  World, 2006
• Photo Finbarr OReilly, Canada, Reuters, Mother
  child at emergency feeding center, Niger

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livestock industry
Future Outlook
Meat consumption is expected to double by 2050

• Raising animals for food is a primary cause of
  deforestation, land degradation, air pollution,
  water shortage, water pollution, loss of
  biodiversity and global warming and yet the
  global livestock sector is growing faster than
  any other agricultural sub-sector.
• Meat Consumption is expected to more than double
  by 2050.
• EUs subsidies to the livestock industry was
  3,500,704,000 Euros in 2007, ensuring the
  industrys continuing growth

• Source
• UN FAO, Livestocks Long Shadow, Rome 2006
• The livestock industry and climate EU makes bad
  worse, Jens Holm Toivo Jokkala, Parliamentary
  Group (p. 17-18)

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Our Future With Livestock

• Following the unprecedented ice melt in the
  Arctic in Summer 2007, the thickness of ice fell
  by nearly half a metre (19) in large parts of
  the Arctic in comparison to the previous five
  winters.
• The most devastating effect of rising
  temperatures is the release of 400 billion tonnes
  of methane gas from the melting permafrost and
  the ocean seabed.
• The melting of the permafrost and subsequent
  release of methane is a "ticking time bomb.
• The Arctic ocean is predicted to be ice free by
  the end of summer of 2012, causing catastrophic
  climate change with increased severity and
  frequency. 
• Methane gas being released from the Arctic Ocean
  is a ticking time bomb.

Source - Jay Zwally, NASA Scientist - Katey
Walter, Nature 443 71-75, 7th Sept. 2006
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The most effective action individuals can take
for the survival of the planet?
Reduce or eliminate meat dairy consumption

• ...the balance of environmental analysis
  suggests that a healthy, low-impact diet would
  contain less meat and fewer dairy products than
  we typically eat today.

Source - Cabinet Office, Food Matters
Towards a Strategy for the 21st Century, July
2008 http//tinyurl.com/6bhjho
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Meat-free Diet
Why a quicker easier solution

• Turnover rate of farm animals is 1-2 years,
  while turnover rate of cars power plants, etc
  can be decades.
• Methane can disappear from the atmosphere in
  9-15 years, while CO2 can stay in the atmosphere
  for more than a century.
• Introduction of new techniques and further
  research takes many years.
• Cut in CO2 involves fighting powerful wealthy
  business interests, while veggie foods are
  readily available.

Source - A New Global Warming Strategy, Noam
Mohr, EarthSave International, August 2005
http//tinyurl.com/2usvxl
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Methane Reduction
Buys us time in fight against global warming
many of us are saying if you want to make an
impact soon, slow down the melting of the
glaciers, slow down the rise of the sea level,
and so on, give us more time to deal with things,
give us, society, more time, shouldnt you work
more on methane?

• Kirk R. Smith, MPH, PhD
• Professor of Global Environmental Health
• University of California, Berkeley

Source - Interview with Supreme Master TV
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Methane
Key to rapid emissions reductions
The mitigation of non-carbon dioxide (Non-CO2)
greenhouse gas emissions can be a relatively
inexpensive supplement to CO2-only mitigation
strategies. Methane Mitigation has the largest
potential across all the Non-CO2 Greenhouse
Gases.
Source US Environmental Protection Agency,
Global Mitigation of Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases,
June 2006
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Methane Reduction
Buys us time in fight against global warming
Control of methane emissions turns out to be a
more powerful lever to control global warming
than would be anticipated.

• Drew Shindell, PhD
• Atmospheric Physicist
• NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Source - NASA GISS Report Methanes Impact on
Climate Change May Be Twice Previous Estimates
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Meat-free Diet
Environmental Advantages

• If everybody in the UK ate no meat for 2 days per
  week, it would save the equivalent of almost 73
  million return flights from London to Ibiza.
• If everybody in the UK ate no meat for 6 days per
  week, it would create greater carbon savings than
  removing all the cars off UK roads (29 million
  cars).

Source -Pieter van Beukering, Kim van der
Leeuw, Desire Immerzeel and Harry Aiking (2008)
-Meat the Truth. -Institute for Environmental
Studies (IVM), VU University, Amsterdam, the
Netherlands http//tinyurl.com/5q3vwx
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Meat-free Diet
Advantages

• Prevents high blood pressure
• Lowers cholesterol levels
• Reduces Type 2 diabetes
• Prevents stroke conditions
• Reverses atherosclerosis
• Reduces heart disease risk - 50
• Reduces heart surgery risk - 80
• Prevents many forms of cancer
• Strengthens immune system
• Increases life expectancy up to 15 years
• Higher IQ

• Source
• American Dietetic Association position paper on
  vegetarian diets http//tinyurl.com/djodu
• Dr Dean Ornish, Preventive Medicine Research
  Institute http//tinyurl.com/5r42vs
• High IQ link to being vegetarian, BBC News, 15
  December 2006 http//tinyurl.com/yl4kwa

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Being vegan means less emissions than eating
organic meat dairy

• Foodwatch of Germany compared
• Conventionally and organically raised meat, dairy
  and plant foods.
• Omnivorous, vegetarian and vegan diets.
• (Translated to mileage driven by a BMW 118d)
• Results
• Conventional Omnivore emissions driving 4758
  km
• Organic Omnivore emissions driving
  4377 km
• Conventional Vegan emissions driving 629 km
• Organic Vegan emissions
  driving 281 km

Source Spiegel Online International, 27 August
2008 http//tinyurl.com/557yxs
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Vegan diets are the most water efficient

• Source
• Water Inputs in California Food Production, Water
  Education Foundation, September, 1991 (chart E3
  p28)
• http//tinyurl.com/6kd6kx

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Vegan or local food?
Carnegie Mellon University researchers found that
eating vegan food one day per week, saves more
emissions than eating locally-grown food all
year.

• Source of Food Emissions
• Transportation (Food Miles) 11
• Agricultural industrial processes 83

Source Food-Miles and the Relative Climate
Impacts of Food Choices in the United States,
Carnegie Mellon University, 2008
http//tinyurl.com/3w377g
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What our greatest scientists politicians say
now

• Please eat less meat meat is a very carbon
  intensive commodity.
• Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman, IPCC
• The single action that a person can take to
  reduce carbon emissions is vegetarianism.
• Dr. James Hansen, Top World
  Climatologist, NASA
• I would advocate getting off of the meat diet,
  that it really is not sustainable.
• Dr. Jonathan Patz, Professor of Env.
  Studies Populations Health Sciences,
  University of Wisconsin Madison
• We have to reduce the meat consumption and one
  way of doing it is of course that a larger amount
  of what we eat is vegetarian and everything else
  other than meat.
• Erik Solheim, Env. Dev. Minister,
  Norway

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What our greatest scientists politicians say
now

• Probably the biggest step a person could take
  is to reduce the consumption of meat and other
  animal products. And if you really want to become
  climate-friendly, well then you should become
  vegetarian and stop eating meat totally. But
  also, we should be active in politics and in
  organizations, and make sure that our governments
  and political parties do what they have to do,
  and that is not to subsidize the meat industry,
  promote vegetarian food, for instance.
• Jens Holm, MEP, Sweden
• Unless we change our food choices nothing else
  matters because it is meat that is destroying
  most of our forests, it is meat that pollutes the
  waters, it is meat that is creating disease which
  leads to all our money being diverted to
  hospitals, so its the first choice for anybody
  who wants to save the earth.
• Maneka Gandhi, Parliamentarian former
  Env. Minister, India

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And in the past

• Nothing will benefit human health and increase
  chances for survival of life on Earth as much as
  the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
• Albert EinsteinWhile we
  ourselves are the living graves of murdered
  beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on
  this earth?
• George Bernard Shaw
• Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which
  is the goal of all human evolution. Until we stop
  harming all other living beings, we are still
  savages.
• Thomas Edison, Inventor

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And in the past

• There is no fundamental difference between man
  and the higher animals in their mental
  facultiesthe lower animals, like man, manifestly
  feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.
• Charles Darwin
• Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a
  slaughterhouse and thinks theyre only animals.
  
• Theodor Adorno
• A man can live and be healthy without killing
  animals for food therefore, if he eats meat he
  participates in taking animal life merely for the
  sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.
  
• Leo Tolstoy

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Call for action
Its time for the truth about meat to be brought
to light. Animal agriculture and the consumption
of animal products are destroying our planet and
are the root cause of the most pressing
challenges of our time. We can no longer hide
from the fact that meat is the single greatest
contributor to the most prevalent and deadly
global health problems, such as cardiovascular
disease, diabetes and obesity. We must recognize
that meat is causing global food shortage as we
feed over one third of all grain products to
animals (over 7 times the amount used for
biofuels), and as farmers in developing nations
grow feed crop for animals rather than food crops
for their fellow citizens. And we must address
the reality that meat and dairy are the leading
causes of global warming, pushing our Earth
beyond the tipping point, heading to where it can
no longer maintain life as we know it. The facts
and figures presented here are compiled from the
latest research by leading climate scientists,
governmental bodies, the United Nations, many
independent organizations, and health
professionals. They show clearly how by stopping
the devastation of meat production and
consumption and embracing a plant-based diet, we
will be able to live in optimal health, preserve
our planet and have enough food and clean water
for all.
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UN Framework Committee on Climate Change,
Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, has pointed out
that a bigger part of higher food price increases
comes from feeding grain to animals being raised
for meat. Secretary de Boer stated, The best
solution would be for us to all become
vegetarians.
Source -http//tinyurl.com/4elf2c
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Links
VIDEOS The Bio-Da Versity Code by Earth Scope A
Community of Scientists Conducting
Multidisciplinary research across the Earth
Sciences http//tinyurl.com/3nlz2z Earthlings
Documentary video on the correlation between
nature, animals, and human economic interests
http//tinyurl.com/3n5jgj ORGANIZATIONS
Nutrition Ecology International Center An
interdisciplinary scientific committee
established with the purpose of investigating the
impact of all stages and methods of food
production and consumption, with regard to
health, environment, society and economy
http//tinyurl.com/4x3dzf European Parliament
European United Left/Nordic Green Left The
Livestock Industry and Climate Change EU Makes
Bad Worse http//tinyurl.com/6kn3vw Global
Canopy Program An Alliance of 29 scientific
institutions in 19 countries, which lead the
world in forest canopy research, education, and
conservation http//tinyurl.com/6fgnym Food
vs. Feed http//tinyurl.com/5sn8ob
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Our Mission

• To share scientific data
• with the public, the media,
• the government and other organisations
• on the significant and devastating effects
• of eating animal products
• on the health of our planet,
• including climate change, drought and
  deforestation,
• and on global hunger. To raise awareness,
• to encourage the media to speak about these
  topics,
• and to encourage governments and other
  institutions
• to pass and adopt laws and policies
• which will result in people eating less animal
  products
• in order to reverse climate change,
• ensure there is enough clean water for all our
  needs,
• and feed the worlds hungry.